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Amarok

There's nothing like conflict to make a story more compelling, and in the man-against-nature drama that is the Pikes Peak International Hillclimb, we can add-man-against-man to the electric motorcycle portion of the event.

The Volkswagen Amarok Concept revealed at the 2012 Geneva Motor Show was a paean to freestyle kayaking, its Baladi Orange hue and 18-inch High Gloss Adamantium Dark wheels on knobbies with raised white letters showing off a wilder side of VW's pickup. True, it was no Rhinemetall Defense conversion or a Colt Seavers tribute, but it was about as far out as the Amarok was going to get from the factory.

PickupTrucks.com has turned to its friends in Australia for a look at a few of the most popular midsize pickups found Down Under. The result is the Global Pickup Shootout that pits the reigning-champion Toyota Hilux against the Holden Colorado, Volkswagen Amarok and the Ford Ranger. Each truck was faced with a battery of tests that included on-road and off-road performance as well as design and value evaluations.

Usually when we talk about European cars that we want but aren't sold in the U.S., it is relegated to an awesome German V8 wagon, or some new hot hatch that we will never see. Among that list of forbidden fruit is the Volkswagen Amarok, and the latest special edition of the compact pickup just makes it seem like its creators are rubbing it in our collective faces.

Full-size pickups continue to rule the sales roost in North America, and there frankly hasn't been much action in the small and midsize segment to generate new interest. Ford finally put its Ranger out to pasture, the Ram Dakota is gone and a Chevrolet Colorado/GMC Canyon replacement has a ways to go before it hits the market. The category's remaining imports – Toyota Tacoma, Nissan Frontier and Honda Ridgeline – aren't exactly fresh, and the long-promised Mahindra model hasn't exact

The Volkswagen Group is comprised of 11 brands producing 240 vehicles across 49 factories throughout the world. So the best way to show off the range of the VW family is to cram a few thousand journalists and VIPs into a massive makeshift stand to outline the Group's goals, what's in the pipeline and what you'll be able to buy later this year.

Volkswagen may not be returning to the Dakar Rally next year as a competitor – having already proven everything it has to prove – but don't count on seeing a desert completely bereft of VW badges altogether. That's because the German automaker will still be providing the support vehicles that the race organizers couldn't do without.